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Harrowing bicycle commute on Southwest Portland's Barbur BoulevardAmong Southwest Barbur Boulevard cyclists, the biggest points of anxiety are the narrow, ravine-spanning Vermont and Newbury bridges just south of Capitol Highway. There are no bike lanes, just spare sidewalks in each direction. Damian Miller, who commutes by bike to his job as a coordinator of Instructional Technology at Lewis & Clark College, talks about the challenges.

Here’s a look at what’s “out there” about traffic, transit and transportation in Oregon and around the globe (no matter what the clock says, it’s always the morning commute somewhere):

Portland’s proposal to put sections of some busy streets on a “road diet” that would eliminate auto lanes to build buffered bicycle lanes hasn’t been the most popular idea with motorists. With fewer lanes for cars, Drivers worry the strategy will create bottlenecks that will add time to their commutes. Well, according to an analysis of similar road diets in Minneapolis by FiveThirtyEight, there’s room for concern on thoroughfares such as Southeast Division, Northeast Glisan and Foster Road (two of which have been put on road diets, with lane reductions planned for Foster). Taking away a lane does significantly increase traffic during rush hour. Still, “Bike lanes don’t cause a lot more congestion if you put them on the right streets. If you cut down the size of streets that are already near capacity, you’ll create severe congestion. But if you start with roads that are well under capacity, you’ll only increase the congestion a little bit. And it may not even be noticeable,” the analysis found. (Fivethirtyeight)